I bought a pair of running shoes last week - white, with silver and chartreuse stripes. Very nice.

I brought them home, and they sat in the closet for a week before I pulled them out to go for a jog. I removed the right one from the box, put it on, and then removed the left one out of the box. To my dismay, I discovered that it still had the anti-theft tag on it.

What a pain in the neck. I didn't want to drive all the way down to the shoe store, and on top of that, I didn't know where the receipt was. it didn't seem like a good idea to walk to a counter with a pair of shoes and no receipt and say, "Hey, these are mine. Would you please remove the anti-theft tag so I can take them?"

So I figured, hey, they're just plastic. I'm a tool-using hominid. If a pierced and tattooed teenage girl can figure out how to remove them, I can figure out how to bust it off.

I messed with it a little bit, and then decided to take it down to the basement where I keep my tool box. I was still wearing the right shoe, so I walked down the stairs, (pad) Clomp (pad) Clomp (pad) Clomp, and set the shoe on the clothes dryer. I got a couple of screwdrivers out of the tool box, found a little uneven spot in the seal of the tag, and started wedging.

The wedging went slow but well. I was able to slowly pull the two halves apart, and thought I was making good progress, when - BLORT - I busted an ink container inside it.

I look like a failed bank robber now. It's all over my hands, I've got a few drops on my face I can't get off, the brand new left shoe is stained all over, and it even dried on top of the clothes dryer and I can't get it off.

This is why I hate criminals. Criminals did this to me. In the old days, I would just go in, buy my shoes, and know that I could just lace them up and jog. Now I have to have a machine shop to get this thing off, and when I do, it ruins the shoe. We need bigger prisons in this country so that honest citizens don't get their shoes ruined by criminals.

DaFace

04-12-2008, 03:48 PM

I knew, but only because I've seen them with big warning labels on the outside of them that say "Don't remove this thing or it'll get ink all over your shoe!" or something like that.

You think they'll take your ink-stained shoe back?

Skip Towne

04-12-2008, 03:49 PM

You should have put this story in Phobia's Cash thread and won some money.

Deberg_1990

04-12-2008, 03:50 PM

all i can think of to say is:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

Rain Man

04-12-2008, 03:52 PM

They have labels? Maybe the pierced and tattoeed girl took off the label.

I got the shoes on the clearance rack, so I figure I'm screwed on getting a replacement. I guess I'll just use them for jogging, but it's annoying.

Rain Man

04-12-2008, 03:53 PM

You should have put this story in Phobia's Cash thread and won some money.

Ooh. Good idea. Hang on.

morphius

04-12-2008, 03:55 PM

I knew this as well, and I have never stole anything. They just followed me home.

I think your first clue was the fact that they are CALLED "anti-theft ink-tags".

88TG88

04-12-2008, 05:51 PM

we need pics

stlchiefs

04-12-2008, 08:33 PM

This is God's way for getting back at you for your sloth. :D You bought new running shoes and let them sit in your closet for over a week before you decided to run? :shake: Well now you got inked. Have fun running with a scarlet letter on your shoes.

Otter

04-12-2008, 08:46 PM

Actually I didn't know that either.

I bought a pair of jeans once that had a security tag left in the back pocket after I brought them home. It was basically a thick sticker about the size of a large stamp with coils on the inside.

Every time I wore those pants to go the local super market the alarm would buzz on the way out. Eventually I went to stick something in my back pocket and found the culprit but it was defiantly a WTF moment leaving the supermarket for about 2 weeks.

blueballs

04-12-2008, 08:50 PM

I worked in a factory that placed sensors in electonic equipment
we would stick them on the n00bs clothing or purse
and the alarms would go off on them when they went to the store -they were clueless

'Hamas' Jenkins

04-13-2008, 09:15 AM

I remember when these were cutting edge anti-theft devices...in 1994.

DJ's left nut

04-13-2008, 12:18 PM

As a punk teenager working in retail, we used to stick those anti-theft magnet stickers on the bottoms of shopping carts.

You should go to stores wearing the shoes and see if store security shadows you.

Rain Man

04-13-2008, 01:19 PM

This is God's way for getting back at you for your sloth. :D You bought new running shoes and let them sit in your closet for over a week before you decided to run? :shake: Well now you got inked. Have fun running with a scarlet letter on your shoes.

Yeah, that's my worry. Any retail person is going to see that ink and think I'm a thief. I'm a little concerned that a group of them might try some vigilante justice on the running trail.

mikeyis4dcats.

04-13-2008, 01:29 PM

we used to peel the magnetic strips off stuff at Hastings and surreptitiously stick them on people at Hastings.

kstater

04-13-2008, 01:31 PM

Buy some shoe polish, or spray paint?

milkman

04-13-2008, 01:35 PM

Shoplifting was so much easier when I was a kid.

CrazyPhuD

04-13-2008, 01:48 PM

Are the ink tags always on the same shoe? If not maybe you an go back to the store and steal the same sized pair with the ink tag on the other shoe. Then you'd have two pairs. One inked one not! :)